Higher program costs and reduced sales at CBS resulted in a
drop of 4% in 4thQ profits to $44.5M. For the full year, net
income dropped 14% to $281.6M. Sales and income for the year
were strong, boosted by a strong performance by "Late Show with
David Letterman" and coverage of the '94 Winter Games. CBS
struggled in the 4thQ because it had no pro football or baseball
broadcasts. CBS shares closed 12.5 cents lower to $62.875
(REUTERS/N.Y. TIMES, 2/9).
DILLER: "Widely regarded as one of the hottest pieces of
manpower in the entertainment business," Barry Diller is "back in
play," according to this morning's WALL STREET JOURNAL. Diller
is resigning shortly as CEO of QVC and is "being cagy about his
plans." In Hollywood and on Wall Street, "guessing Mr. Diller's
next move has become a spectator sport," and many expect him to
make "another run" at CBS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/9).

The CFL and CBC-TV announced a new 3-year TV agreement. The
upcoming season marks the 43rd consecutive year that CBC will
broadcast CFL games. CFL Commissioner Larry Smith: "We are
extremely pleased to endure our long-standing relationship with
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The quality of CBC's
television coverage over the past 42 years has been excellent"
(CFL). CFL VP/Communications Mike Murray says the league will
receive more than C$5M in revenue for the next three years with
the new TV deal. Murray: "The league and all our clubs are happy
with our deal with the CBC and we are now exploring the
possibility of pay-per-view and cable television." Murray said
the league will now begin negotiations with ESPN2 and TSN (Norman
Da Costa, TORONTO STAR, 2/9).

ESPN has struck a deal with the ATP tour that will allow
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN International to broadcast the ATP Tour
Championship Series and the official year-end championship. ESPN
will provide week-long coverage of the tournaments in the U.S.
and Canada. ESPN2 will televise Thursday-Sunday events in
Europe. In addition, ESPN and the ATP Tour will jointly produce
a 30-minute highlight program: "ATP Tour Magazine" (ESPN).

Time Warner Sports President Seth Abraham says HBO's "Real
Sports with Bryant Gumbel" will be "unlike any ever attempted ...
covering stories no one else will pursue or even touch,"
according to Mike Hiestand of USA TODAY. The show will also
include Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, James Brown, Frank Deford
and Ira Berkow. Unlike the networks, HBO "doesn't have to worry
about offending any league to which it pays multimillion rights
fees or worry about advertisers." Gumbel admits to the networks'
difficulty in sports journalism: "With CBS, you might say 'Report
on how much the basketball Final Four generates and how little
goes to the kids.' But would it be worth it for them to risk
their relations with the NCAA?" The show will debut April 2 and
air four times in '95 (Mike Heistand, USA TODAY, 2/9).

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that
would "repeal a tax break for minority owned media companies."
The act could jeopardize Viacom Inc.'s plans to sell its cable TV
systems for $2.3B "while avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars
in taxes." Viacom wants to sell its systems to a Sacramento-
based company Mitgo, owned by black entrepreneur Frank
Washington. Viacom officials said the deal "could not be
preserved unless the tax deal was preserved." Viacom is "anxious
to exit" the cable business because the sale would help reduce
debt acquired when it bought Paramount last year (Edmund Andrews,
N.Y. TIMES, 2/9). A cancellation of the deal would "delay
indefinitely a sweeping agreement now pending" between Viacom and
TCI (Calmes & Robichaux, WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/9).

MasterCard will announce today that it will spend about
$100M on a '98 World Cup sponsorship, which includes about $35M
on TV ads globally, a 25% increase from its spending on '95 World
Cup spending (Mike Heistand, USA TODAY, 2/9).... Press Box will
profile the Stielger family tonight at 9pm. They are one of
America's most promising figure skating families, with three
members taking part in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this
week in Providence, R.I. (Press Box)....Dave Barnett, the one-
time radio voice of the Mavericks, is the top candidate to
replace Brad Sham as the Cowboys play-by-play announcer (DALLAS
MORNING NEWS, 2/9).